Football book a fascinating look at Second World War

‘Friday Night Lights’ author Buzz Bissinger releases a new bestseller, ‘The Mosquito Bowl’

Of the 65 marines who played in the Christmas Eve game, 15 died in the three-month battle for Okinawa and another 20 were wounded

One of the bestselling sports books this season is about a touch football game on a Christmas Eve.

Buzz Bissinger, who wrote the popular book, “Friday Night Lights” has published his latest effort, “The Mosquito Bowl.”

“Friday Night Lights,” a true story about a high-school football team in Permian, Texas, also became a movie and a popular television series.

“The Mosquito Bowl” is also a true story about United States marines playing a football game on a makeshift field in the middle of the Pacific Ocean during the Second World War.

Subtitled, “A Game of Life and Death in World War II,” the book is more about the young men in the 29th and Fourth Regiments of the Sixth Marine Division preparing and then taking part in the bloodiest battle of the Second World War, the taking of Okinawa.

The game was organized by a group of bored marines preparing on Guadalcanal for the upcoming battle. A number of young men, all former college football players, some ticketed for the NFL, all of whom enlisted in the marines after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor to bring the Americans into the Second World War.

There was, of course, no football field per se and the players had no football equipment, just a football one had brought along. The game was supported by the generals and commanders as a distraction in the serious preparations for the upcoming battle.

According to Bissinger’s account in the extremely well-researched book, about 1,500 marines surrounded the field cut out of the jungle. The American Armed Forces Radio network broadcasted the game to all bases on Christmas Eve 1944.

The description of the actual game, which ended in a scoreless tie, is only a few pages in the 400page book.

Bissinger documents the pre-war lives of a number of the marines involved in the game. Some were all-American football stars at major universities. A few had been scouted by NFL teams. In those pre-war years, college football was much bigger and more popular than the professional variety.

These young men deferred their college careers and essentially ended their athletic careers to enlist in the marines. In total, there were 65 players on the two teams in the game.

In the second part of the book, Bissinger has researched their military involvement meticulously. Obviously, nearly 80 years after the game and ensuing battle, he relied on family records and stories passed down over generations as well as military records.

The Battle for Okinawa started in April 1945, four months after the football game. Okinawa was needed so U.S. bombers could attack the island of Japan. The Japanese knew that to lose the island meant the country would be bombed into submission, as it was culminating with the two atomic bombs.

About 180,000 U.S. marines and infantry attacked Okinawa.

Some poor decisions by U.S. commanders, according to Bissinger, led to an unnecessarily high casualty rate.

The U.S. had 49,000 casualties on Okinawa, with 12,500 killed.

Bissinger documents the actions of a number of the football-playing marines.

The desperate Japanese initiated kamikaze raids where bomb-loaded planes with pilots on suicide missions flew into support ships and land battles.

Of the 65 marines who played in the Christmas Eve game, 15 died in the three-month battle for Okinawa and another 20 were wounded.

Bissinger recently visited the colleges, universities and families of many of the players. A few of those players are immortalized by their university in a variety of ways. The same for the hometowns of some with memorials to them.

This book has received many accolades for its extensive research and realistic depictions of the battles fought.